


Strawberry Sakura

by Lirillith



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 14:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7895782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's more to life than muscles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strawberry Sakura

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aeriel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeriel/gifts).



Nagisa had been looking forward to the year's first joint practice with Samezuka for a while, and the worst part was, part of it was because of Momotarou. 

He just hadn't realized they had _quite_ so much in common, until Momo decided the middle of practice was a fantastic opportunity to confess to their manager. Iwatobi's manager. 

_Nagisa's_ manager. 

"Momo-chan, how could you!" Nagisa demanded, the moment he was able to corner him. He might have felt a little guilty about the way Momo's face fell, under other circumstances, but even so Momo looked happy — not just happy, words like _ebullient_ or _jubilant_ — and Nagisa could feel his own face wavering somewhere between a frown and a pout. 

"How could I... OHH! Nagisacchi! You mean we have something else in common?"

Definitely a pout. 

"No way! That's awesome! We're rivals!"

"How is that awesome?"

"I figured we could never be rivals, I mean, breaststroke and backstroke, right? But like this—"

"I already have _all the muscles in the world_ as rivals. And now you, too?"

"Awww. I figured it was, like, may the best man win, like me and my brother?" 

Nagisa pouted harder; he'd totally forgotten about Gou seducing the old captain into joint practices back in their first year. The old captain and his muscles. "I guess that's how it has to be," he grumbled. It wasn't like Momo was going to take back his confession now or anything. 

 

After practice was over, and they saw all their muscular first years off at the station, Gou led the way to a cafe she'd had in mind. Nagisa never had a problem with cafes, especially not when Gou was there too — Rei liked to point out how the drinks he liked barely even counted as coffee, more like parfaits, which to Nagisa was missing the whole point. Whereas Gou was right there with him with the sweets. 

"I wonder if it'd be rude to put protein powder in my drink," Nagisa said reflectively, looking at the strawberry sakura latte in front of him. They were early, but everybody was rolling theirs out early this year to match Starbucks.

"Of course not," Gou said, reaching for her bag, at the same time Rei said "YES."

"I'm not putting it in _yours_ , Rei-chan."

"Please don't adulterate your drink in front of me," Rei said. "Please."

"Oh, _fine_." He was getting a lot of mileage out of his pout today. Maybe he'd better cut that out; he had more reason than ever to keep Gou from thinking of him as a pouty kid. 

"If you change your mind, just let me know!" Gou said. He beamed at her.

Rei cleared his throat. "Gou-san, you had a reason you wanted to come here, didn't you?"

"Well, kind of. I didn't want to talk about it on the train." She stirred her own mocha iced coffee, maybe just so she didn't have to make eye contact. "What am I going to do about Mikoshiba-kun?"

"That depends on what you want to do, doesn't it?" Nagisa's head whipped toward Rei. This was not a time for being reasonable and giving good advice!

"You should turn him down," Nagisa said. "You can't even remember his first name, right?"

"It's, um... it's Momo-something, right?"

"Momotarou," Rei said helpfully. 

"See, that's just my point! You don't even know him."

"You could always get to know him by going on a date with him," Rei suggested. Nagisa wished deeply for Haru and Mako's telepathy. _Rei-chan, stop HELPING._

"I think I want that protein powder after all."

"Oh good," Gou said, pulling her bag into her lap. Rei choked a little, but Nagisa needed revenge right now. Revenge, and muscle mass. "I told him I needed some time to think, so I don't need to make a decision immediately."

"You should take time," Nagisa said. "Lots of time."

"Yes, you definitely shouldn't rush into anything," Rei agreed, averting his eyes as Nagisa opened the bag of powder. There was a little plastic scoop inside. 

"I mean, he's pretty skinny, right? Like me. What happened to muscles?"

"There's more to life than muscles," she said, and Nagisa dropped both powder and scoop into his latte. 

Rei was staring too.

"What? It's true! I mean, if you're actually going to date someone, it's more about personality, right? Shared interests? Things like that?"

"Yes!" Nagisa agreed. "Yes, exactly! You should date someone you have a lot in common with."

"You should also get that scoop out of your coffee," Rei said mildly, passing him a plastic spoon. Nagisa absently dipped it into his drink. 

"But Rei has a point," she continued. "What about getting to know someone?"

Nagisa fished the scoop out with a splash of pink coffee, and grabbed the edge of the table with both hands. Which were maybe kind of shaking, but if he held onto the table it wouldn't show. "But why try to get to know someone who might be all wrong for you? Especially if there's someone else you know much better, right there in front of you. Wouldn't you just be wasting your time?" 

"Nagisa, are you trying to tell me something?" she asked, with that kind of sparkle in her eyes she mostly got when she was teasing somebody. Nagisa was pretty sure his knuckles would be white from gripping the table if he looked.

"I'll get you some napkins!" Rei blurted, pushing his chair back with a loud scrape.

_Seriously, Rei-chan, stop helping._ The spell was broken, and it was hard to squeeze words out of his suddenly-extremely-tight throat, but he managed a strangled, tiny, "Yes."

"Good," she said. "That makes it a lot easier to know what to tell Mikoshiba-kun."

"It does?" Wait, was that all it took? "Doesn't that look a little weird? I mean, wouldn't you tell him right away if you liked someone else?"

"Maybe I got shy or something," she said. Nagisa snickered. "He doesn't know any better!" she protested. "Just like you said."

"I guess that's true. I should actually say it, right? Since Rei-chan gave us some privacy and everything."

"Maybe _I_ want to say it instead."

"Sure," Nagisa said. "Whatever you want. Or we both could? Like in unison."

"That's so cheesy," she said affectionately. "Sure. So on three?"

As such, they managed to chorus, "I like you! Please go out with me," just as Rei arrived back at their table with a wad of napkins in both hands.


End file.
